"Process completed with exit code N" in GitHub Actions: What It Means
"Process completed with exit code N" is GitHub Actions reporting the exit status of your run step - N is the real signal, not the message.
This generic line appears whenever a run step exits non-zero. The number N tells you what happened; the message itself is just the wrapper.
What it means
The Actions runner executes each run block as a shell script and prints this line with the script's exit code. N follows standard conventions: 1 = generic failure, 127 = command not found, 137 = OOM-kill, 143 = SIGTERM, etc.
Common causes
- A command in the step exited non-zero (the script inherits the last failing command under the default
set -e/pipefail). - A missing tool (127) or non-executable (126).
- An OOM-kill (137) or timeout-driven SIGTERM (143).
How to fix it
Look up N in an exit-code reference and read the step output above the line for the failing command. Mechanical N values like 137/143/124 are transient - Latchkey detects and auto-retries those classes; deterministic ones (1, 127) need a code or config fix.